D'Arista would walk into the studio with his arms full of "things" and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. In less than five minutes a beautiful still life would be ready for us to paint. We were only allowed to use straight lines, diagonals, black and Venetian Red. I did some of my best work in his class.

He was the first teacher who discussed the "Golden Triangle" and demonstrated how we could use it in our own work.

I imagine for any art student he brought painting to life. For me, he opened up a world that I wanted to know more about. His passion for painting was tangible and he imparted it to me.

Peri Schwartz

Studied with D'Arista at Tanglewood in the summer of 1970, and took a composition class from him at Boston University in 1973